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I don’t understand the wordplay for 24d unless “shed” is doing some very heavy lifting. Is it intended to be interpreted as “separated”?

I believe so, riversk, and to be fair, it’s the first definition of the verb in Chambers

Shed certainly seemed weird. I don't think it's enough to say that shed can mean separate. Separate can mean remove (something from something else that it is attached to), or divide. It's the divide meaning that's needed here, and if shed means that, it's news to me.

I was about to ask the same question about 24d. It seems that is the intended parsing, but I had the same reservations as Jamesm.
Also, the position of the 5th letter of the answer seems arbitrary, as there are 3 possible spots.

Solvers of a certain age in the UK might recall a TV programme called “One Man And His Dog”, a sheepdog trial involving shepherds from the four home countries. One of the disciplines was “The Shedding Ring”, a pen into which the sheep were herded before the sheepdog had to separate one from their number. So I’m comfortable this is a fair usage.

Mattrom, I’m not sure I understand your point about several positions. Not all wordplay indicates the exact letter sequence. The clue structure indicates that a word for eagle is to be split inside a word for pine. Only one answer fulfils the definition. It’s not commonplace, for sure, and perhaps a shorthand for the exact operation required, but I don’t object to it. Anyway, I’ve said enough on the clue!

As a younger reader with fond memories of the show, I lean with Quisling on usage. On parsing, there is a school of thought that it should be precise enough to generate the word 'as is' rather than offering three possibilities only one of which is, well, possible, but I'll happily concede the prerogative to Karla because this was thoroughly enjoyable!

'...the sheepdog had to separate one from their number'. By that wording, it is a single sheep that is being separated/shed from the group. The clue requires that the flock is shed, not the sheep.

I am still agonising on how the end game is supposed to work. Could someone please help relieve my misery by answering two questions?

Firstly, wrt the "curve", are there any straight bits in it?

Secondly, shouldn't the last word from the removed letters be pluralised?

gitto
My curve has a straight bit. I found the instructions a bit confusing, but follow them strictly. '... join them with a curve' must refer to 'these changes', i.e all seven cells affected by the changes. That requires some straightness.
I'd agree on the plural, not sure what the reason for singular is, there are spare clues that could have provided the s.